Wednesday whimsies

It's all happening in the Balkans. Having reported on Monday that Serbia's new Trade Law comes into force on 1 January 2o11, the IPKat is now being informed from various good folk that the same country becomes the European Patent Organisation's 38th member on 1 October 2010. The IPKat welcomes these developments. Merpel is still struggling to cope with the fall-out from the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia as she mewses over the sound-alike similarity of (i) the Balkans to the Baltic and (ii) Slovenia to Slovakia -- and the close correspondence between (iii) Macedonia and Macedonia ...


The fascinating patent dispute before the courts of England and Wales concerning Neutrokine-α and industrial applicability in Eli Lilly & Co v Human Genome Sciences Inc, noted by the IPKat here, is (according to a normally reliable source whom the Kat thanks) to be heard by the Supreme Court on Thursday 7 October. Listening to the well-rehearsed arguments will be Lords Walker and Collins and Lady Hale.

Anti Copying in Design -- better known as ACID -- has just released its latest newsletter. Although the organisation has the word "design" in its title, this UK-based body tackles copyright, trade mark and other infringements that erode its members' interests. While it does some lobbying and advising, ACID's main purpose is to achieve actual results for its members, mainly small and medium-sized design-based businesses which find that others are parasitically and unlawfully riding on their creativity. To its credit, ACID succeeds in doing this. To join, click here.


Friends and acquaintances of Polish IP enthusiast Berenika Depo, who died so suddenly last week (see IPKat post here), will be pleased to know that a Berenika Award for Talented Young Polish IP Lawyers is to be set up by her Foundation, the Amici Berenicae. The IPKat has received a touching email from her father, who writes: "Instead of flowers we ask all her friends to donate a little amount of money in Berenika's memory to her Foundation". Details are available from her firm's website here.

Want to try your hand at some serious book-reviewing? All too often, publishers send out books for review but nothing ever comes back. If books sent out by publishers don't get some sort of review, they might as well have popped them on to the bonfire for all the benefit they get in return. Well, the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) is aiming to do something about it. Yesterday's post on the jiplp weblog explains all.

Inspired by the notion, described in this recent post, that no reasonable consumer in the United States might regard a product branded 'vitaminwater' as being a healthy beverage, several of the Kats' correspondents have been sending him amusing items from their own jurisdictions which reflect upon things that reasonable consumers might not consider. One example, sent in by the IPKat's friend Rachel Dawson, concerns the term KIWICLAMS which, the Assistant Commissioner for trade marks in New Zealand opined, no ordinary consumer would associate with the trade mark applicant's greenshell mussels which originated from New Zealand (see P Te Huia [2007] NZIPOTM 11. For the unitiated, the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, cited in the decision, defines "kiwi" as “a commonly used description of goods or services that come from New Zealand” and "clam" as “a bivalve mollusc”.